← Back to High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena astro-ph.HE
One burst released a third of the energy detected in 806 days of watching an FRB
O. S. Ould-Boukattine, A. J. Cooper, A. M. Cook, J. W. T. Hessels, D. M. Hewitt, J. Huang, I. Cognard, T. J. Dijkema, M. P. Gawroński, W. Herrmann, F. Kirsten, A. Moroianu, Z. Pleunis, W. Puchalska, S. Ranguin, M. P. Snelders, T. Telkamp
May 18, 2026
Astronomers monitored FRB 20240114A for over two years and detected 178 high-energy bursts, accumulating 4.4×10⁴² erg of radio energy. A single "STROOP" burst contributed roughly one-third of this total—the brightest ever recorded in repeating or one-off FRBs. The data suggests the most energetic events, though rare, dominate how quickly the source depletes its energy budget, with implications for whether repeaters truly represent the broader FRB population.
Read the original paper →